DANE SCHILLER, HOUSTON CHRONICLE |
February 6, 2011

Experts have studied the narco submarine, which sits in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Painted a camouflage pattern of blue, black and gray, it is believed to be able to submerge about 50 feet.

The only narco submarine ever captured — a 73-foot-long camouflaged vessel capable of carrying at least 7 tons of cocaine while cruising stealthily beneath the ocean's surface — sits raised on concrete blocks in a South American seaport.

Its belly is caked with grime. Its hatch is open.

Many of its secrets are no more.

In the seven months since the game-changing discovery of the submarine, built by drug traffickers in a covert shipyard deep in the Ecuadorean jungle, naval experts from multiple countries have studied the vessel.

Their conclusion: It is the "real deal" — fully capable of making multiple journeys to North America.

The journey would have been tough but profitable for the sub, which has no name and was caught in July before its maiden voyage.

Seven tons of pure cocaine would easily be worth $100 million in Texas. That's 20 times the estimated $5 million cost of building the sub.

"It wasn't the Love Boat," Bergman said. "This is about getting black-market cargo from Point A to Point B … just trying to make sure they survived the journey and reaped the bounty."

There is no galley or bed, just a small porthole and toilet to accommodate a crew of four or five. A commercial fish-finder device was mounted on the front to allow a pilot inside to see what was ahead.

Unanswered questions

Officials said the most likely travel route for the sub would have been to sneak north along the Pacific coast and unload its illicit cargo during at-sea rendezvous with boats. The cocaine would be taken ashore to Central America or Mexico, where it would be smuggled over land into the United States.

The sub is far smaller than military subs but adds a new dimension to the longtime cat-and-mouse game of trying to catch large loads of cocaine leaving South America via ships and planes.

Officials are poring over the possibilities that come with a criminal organization having the contacts and ability to build a real sub.

"The U.S. military is taking this threat very seriously and thinking through all the implications of this sort of platform," said Laurence McCabe, a U.S. Naval War College professor of national security affairs specializing in Latin America.

And if the submarine could carry drugs, he pointed out, it could carry terrorists.

Among the most important questions not yet answered: Who designed the sub, and who were the naval mercenaries ready to pilot it?

"They have now entered into a world of fairly elite, specialized skill sets, which are much easier to track and identify," McCabe said. "They are innovative people, and they are smart, but at some point you run into a technology wall and need to bring in special people."

The vessel, which was captured in a brackish tributary leading to the Pacific Ocean, has since been towed to Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil.

It was lifted from the water and placed on a pier, where it remains in Ecuadorean government custody.

It is painted a camouflage design of blue, black and gray - perfect colors for use on the high seas when hiding from government ships and planes that hunt traffickers.

McCabe, who has not been aboard the sub but shared his expertise with the Houston Chronicle, said from photos it looks like it would require about six people to operate for any significant distance.

He also said it likely would have been able to travel about 20 knots per hour for up to an hour, but would have to slow to about 5 knots for more extended under­water travel. The faster it travels under­water, the more battery power it needs. The more it uses batteries, the closer it has to come to the surface to recharge them.

The U.S. government worked with Ecuador and Colombia to locate and capture the sub near the Ecuador- Colombia border, where it could only be reached by boat, said one U.S. official. No drugs were found onboard and not a shot was fired as soldiers and police swarmed it. One person was arrested nearby.

Race against time

The remote region has a reputation as a no man's land.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was found after a desperate race against time to locate the sub before it could put to sea. All told, about 150 Ecuadorean police and military personnel closed in on the sub, but by the time they got there, the culprits were gone.

"Once you bring all those cops and military into an area for an operation, the word gets out," said the official.

They waited for high tide to have the sub towed by a boat out to the Pacific. From there, it was tied to an Ecuadorian navy ship.

The submarine is outfitted with a diesel-electric power system, according to the DEA. That includes twin diesel engines and more than 100 suitcase-size batteries.

7-ton payload

The craft is built chiefly with fiberglass over a wood frame, which keeps it light and buoyant.

It is believed to be able to submerge about 50 feet below the surface - deep enough to hide yet shallow enough to avoid crushing pressure.

The cargo bay toward the front is big enough to hold about seven tons of cocaine.

Such a payload is staggering when compared with the 622 pounds of cocaine caught all of last year by Customs and Border Protection inspectors in El Paso.

The agency deploys P-3 Orion aircraft off the coasts of Central and South America to hunt for smugglers, who have previously taken to using hybrid boats that look like submarines but ride low on the surface without being able to fully submerge.

"It is a game-changer, but we are the United States of America, and we will do what it takes to find these things," Eckardt said. "Once you get into this sub game, there are a lot of people who get involved.

"This is a legitimate threat."

The official who spoke to the Chronicle said there is no way to know how many other narco subs are out there.

"The fact is (they) found one," the official said. "The probability is so remote, that the only one ever built, only one near completion and the only one about to get under way is the one (they) found.